Letter 120: Polianus has returned to us and reported the favors he received, and both he and I are grateful.
To Florentius. (359/60)
Polianus has returned to us and reported the things he had obtained, and both I and he were grateful for what he had obtained. Now, however, hurrying once more to you, he was eager to carry a letter, not as though he were not already of such standing with you that he might even make mention of another person to you with confidence, but because, knowing that you become more cheerful through letters from us, he was afraid that he might be called to account for not bringing one. I therefore gave it to him eagerly for both reasons, both providing you with delight and rescuing our comrade from a penalty.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Φλωρεντίῳ. (359/60)
Ἐπανῆκεν ἡμῖν Πωλιανὸς ὧν τε ἔτυχεν ἤγγειλε καὶ χά-
ριν εἴχομεν ἐγώ τε καὶ ἐκεῖνος ὧν ἔτυχεν ἐκεῖνος. νῦν δ’ αὖ-
θὶς παρὰ σὲ τρέχων ἔσπευσε γράμματα φέρειν οὐχ ὡς οὐκ
ἤδη παρὰ σοὶ τοσοῦτος ὢν ὥστε κἂν ἄλλου πρὸς σὲ μνησθῆ-
ναι μετὰ θάρσους, ἀλλ’ εἰδώς, ὅτι τοῖς παρ’ ἡμῶν ἡδίων γίνῃ
γράμμασιν, ἔδεισε μὴ δίκην ἀπαιτηθῇ τοῦ μὴ κομίζειν.
ἔδω-
κα τοίνυν ἀμφοτέρων εἵνεκα προθύμως σοί τε εὐφροσύνην
παρασκευάζων καὶ τὸν ἑταῖρον ἐξαιρούμενος ζημίας.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern libanius retranslated v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://github.com/OpenGreekAndLatin/First1KGreek/blob/master/volume_xml/libanius_10.xml
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Sent to Florentius along with the preceding letter, which Jerome requests him to deliver to Rufinus. This Florentius was a rich Italian who had retired to Jerusalem to pursue the monastic life. Jerome subsequently speaks of him as a distinguished monk so pitiful to the needy that he was generally known as the father of the poor.